Melmaruvathur is a small village 92 km south of Chennai city
(Formerly known as Madras) in the southern state of Tamilnadu,
India. The place where the Temple stands today has more than
2000 years of history. At this place 21 Siddhars (Highly evolved
souls or God realized beings similar to Jesus, Buddha, Moses,
Mohammed or Great Spiritual Masters/Gurus) attained Jeeva
Samaadhi (Leaving the mortal body but living in astral plane).

Where
the current temple's sanctum sanctorum stands today, there
was only a neem tree in 1960's. Unlike every other neem tree,
which bear bitter tasting fruit, this tree secreted and dripped
a sweet nectar. Residents of that village found that they
had a urge in their mind to taste this nectar whenever they
passed by this tree. Since many passers reported of curing
their illness and diseases after tasting this nectar, the
word spread swiftly to entire village and its neighborhood.
So it became a customary for these villagers to take a drop
of this nectar to ailing friends and relatives. They treated
this as a medicinal tree and protected it from grazing cattle
and wood cutters.

In 1966, a severe storm uprooted this neem
tree, which exposed the Swayambu underneath to the villagers
for the first time. Swayambu means "A
self emerging, naturally formed oval shaped object (carved
of rock)". People built a small hut on top of
this Swayambu and conducted poojas (prayer rituals) to it.

This place is known as Siddhar Peetam ("Siddhar"
in Tamil language means enlightened or evolved souls. "Peetam"
means throne. Thus Siddhar Peetam means The Throne of Evolved
Souls or Great Spiritual Masters/Gurus) where 21 Siddhars
are laid in Jeeva Samaadhi.

Swayambu
alone was worshipped for many years. The idol of Mother AdhiParaSakthi
was installed later in the sanctum sanctorum on November 25
1977. The idol of beautiful Mother is three feet tall, seated
on thousand-petal lotus seat, with Her right leg folded and
the left leg resting on the lotus petals. The thousand petal
lotus has significance in meditation. In this idol form, She
holds the bud of a lotus in Her right hand, the mudhra (sign)
of knowledge in Her left hand and with Her hair plait and
knotted upwards like a crown.

The
shape of this idol is very different from those described
in the codes of sculpture. The Mother wanted the idol to be
in this form and so ordered through Her Oracle to one of the
devotees to create it. The shape and form of this idol cannot
be seen anywhere else.

The
layout of the Temple is as follows: The OM Sakthi Stage at
the entrance. On the highway in front of the Siddhar Peetam
there is a stage with the mantra of "OmSakthi" on
it. Soolam (Trishul) of the Mother is erected on this stage.
The devotees entering the Peetam to worship the Mother, first
go round this stage thrice and then enter the Peetam. Since
the AdhiParaSakthi is the Mother Origin of everything, there
is no NavaGrahas (9 Planets) that are usually found in all
other Hindu Temples. The Mother has ascertained, "Those
who surrender to me, need not pray to the planetary Lords.
They are my officers who carry out the work of implementing
my Law of Karma.

The
Sanctum Sanctorum faces the entrance where OM Sakthi stage
is located. Inside this sanctorum is the Swayambu and Mother's
idol. The sanctorum is only about 10X10 feet room. Amma has
revolutionized the concept of spirituality by letting everybody
irrespective of caste, creed, religion, language, nationality,
social status, gender, education, etc., to enter the sanctum
sanctorum and perform the daily rituals and prayers to the
Mother AdhiParaSakthi. Women can enter the temple even during
their periodic menstrual cycle a taking bathe.

Putrumandapam: The Mother in order to keep blessing people
at all times, dwells in the snake pit (putrumandapam) in the
form of a cobra. The Mother appears before the devotees who
stay in the mandapam (Hall) at nights, in the form of a snake
till this day. It is the putrumandapam where the Mother gives
Her Oracle.

Saptha Kanniyar Kovil (The Temple of Seven Virgins: To the
right of putrumandapam is the temple of seven virgins. Normally
the temple of the virgins will never have a roof. So also
this temple of the virgins, with wall on four sides has no
roof. To ascertain the fact that all are Her children and
that She doesn't differentiate between any of us, the Mother
ordained the local Harijans (considered to be low caste people
in India) to construct the Saptha Kanniyar (Saptha means seven
and Kanni means virgin. Kanniyar is plural for virgins) worship
center within the Temple.

In July 1978, one day, AMMA
in Her Oracle said, "Son the world
has come to a very deplorable state, where black magic and
voodoo is being practiced heavily. In such a state of affairs,
a lot of innocent people get into trouble and suffer. The
great many people who get caught in the web of this evil are
coming to this place seeking relief. This is a place of devotion
and spiritualism. Although it is not improper for them to
come here, in order to continue to promote spiritualism without
time being wasted in attending to them, construct the Adharvana
Badhra Kaali (Furious Form of Mother AdhiParaSakthi to fight
the evils) near the lake. The people afflicted by evil spirits
will be relieved off them, if they worship My Furious Form
of Adharvana Badhra Kaali". Accordingly the Adharvana
Badhra Kaali idol was installed on February 9th 1979.

The abode of Adigalaar is a very simple but a beautiful place.
Just opposite to this abode is a garden with green and natural
scenery. It is from here that Adigalaar gives dharshan to
His devotees and rests whenever He gets time. There is a small
pooja (prayer) room here. When one enters the abode of Adigalaar,
one feels like entering the sanctum sanctorum.

Although,
Siddhar Peetam is called the AdhiParaSakthi Temple, there
are no religious codes followed. There are no other Gods or
Goddesses as found in other Hindu Temples. People belonging
to all religions visit this Temple all the time. They recite
their own religious Holy Scriptures such as Bible, and Quran.
As Amma says, whichever scripture we read, whatever mantra
we recite, everything is received only by Amma. And Amma is
the one who disposes them. The visiting devotees are not required
to convert their religion.

One
of the unique features of this Temple is that it does not
have priests to perform or conduct daily prayers unlike other
temples and churches. The devotees themselves are allowed
to enter the sanctum sanctorum all the time and they can perform
archanas and abishekams in accordance with the procedures
laid by the Mother AdhiParaSakthi through Her Oracles. Maha
yagnas or velvis are conducted by volunteers here.

The
Daily Routine:

The people who serve in the Siddhar Peetam
are normally the devotees clad in red dress. They come from
outstations, render services and return home. To serve at
the sanctum sanctorum, each one of the weekly worshipping
centers (mandrams) is alloted a day and informed sufficiently
early. Accordingly, all mandrams compete with one another
in rendering the best service. Every day Abhishekam at the
sanctum sanctorum takes place at 4:00 AM in the morning. After
this, idol of the Mother is decorated followed by aradhana.
The Mother's blessed prasadam (proceeding of the prayer) is
then offered to the devotees. Everyday
around 11:00 AM free food is distributed to all visiting devotees.
Besides, on the new moon and full moon days, Adigalaar is
given a special welcome and the free food distribution is
done on a large scale.

AMMA is very
fond of cleanliness. She resides in a clean inner soul and
a clean appearance. In the same way, the Temple and its surroundings
are always kept clean by volunteers.

Nobody prevents the people from worshipping
the Mother AdhiParaSakthi inside the sanctum sanctorum. Also,
it is FREE OF COST unlike other
temples in India, where money must be paid to conduct prayers.